Thursday, August 30, 2012

How to Make Hot Sauce

Back in the spring, Paul and I planted nine pepper plants in our front yard. Six of the nine were hot (jalapeno, habanero, golden cayenne, hot banana pepper, Thai hot chili, and tabasco). The others were my bell peppers. Anyway, as of last weekend the plants were loaded with hot peppers. Paul uses some for "pepper challenges" with his friends, and I cook with some too. But we still had way too many.

So what did we do? We made hot sauce! I looked up a recipe online, tweaked it to my liking, and then we spent all day last Saturday makin' and cannin' sauce. I'll share the recipe in a little photo essay.

1) Measure out a pound of hot peppers. We mixed different varieties because the larger peppers weigh more so it was easier to use some of those in every batch.

Here's a bowl of jalapenos and hot banana peppers, ready for one batch:


 And here's a bowl of habaneros, ready for another:


2) Chop the peppers and place in the bowl of a food processor. Process until mostly well chopped.


3) Add one chopped onion, 4 cloves of minced garlic, and two cups of tomato sauce. Process until very smooth.

4) Pour the sauce into a saucepan with a lid. Simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes on medium-low heat.

5) Stir in one tablespoon of vinegar.

6) Carefully pour the sauce into a fine mesh sieve and use the back of a metal spoon to push the liquid through the sieve into a bowl. Reserve the chopped peppers for chili paste. 


7) Pour the sauce into sterilized jars. Add the paste to separate sterilized jars. Seal. Add to a water canner. Cover with water and bring to a boil for 30 minutes.


All in all, we ended up with 16 jars of hot sauce and chili paste. The sauces are all delicious, but the tabasco-Thai chili-jalapeno is by far the hottest.

14 comments:

Yogi Kitchen said...

what a beautiful crop of peppers and what a perfect usage! Wish we had the sun here to grow them..but we don't!

The Chubby Vegetarian said...

I've been doing the same thing! I have been smoking the peppers and letting them lightly ferment before turning them into sauce. We've also been making a ton of pepper jelly.

FoodandLoathing said...

Awesome! I make jalapeno pepper hot sauce every summer from (I'm embarrassed to say it) Emeril's recipe. It's so good, though.

Barb@ThatWasVegan said...

That's awesome! I've never tried canning- and since I can't grow a damn thing, probably never will :)

Allysia said...

Bianca! Those peppers you grew are beautiful! Must be nice living in a climate suited to their growth. :) Also, can't go wrong with homemade hot sauce!

Anonymous said...

what gorgeous peppers!! i'm too much of a chicken for hot food:)

Eileen said...

Homemade hot sauce sounds amazing! I have a single solitary jalapeno plant, but it's being overshadowed by our massive tomato vines, so there are only a couple peppers starting to get big...I hope I get enough to try this out!

Marisa said...

Ok, this is cool. I've never tried making hot sauce or chili paste. Now I'm wondering if some sort of combo/ blend of the two would work for homemade Sriracha.

Alaine @ My GF & DF Living said...

What beautiful peppers! So colorful and I bet is packs a good punch. Looks so tasty!

SarahByng said...

Great idea for a christmas hamper, if I can find some inexpensive chillis at the farmers market!

MeloMeals said...

omg.. YUM!!

Erin said...

Your peppers were so prolific! Tons of hot sauce sounds like a great way to use them up.

Babette said...

Very tempting. I have Tabasco, Cayenne and Hungarian War peppers in my garden and I will soon have to harvest them before they turn bad.

Do you think it would keep alright in the freezer? I don't want to do canning.

gluten free beer said...

The best way to avoid getting the chili pepper oils on your skin is to wear rubber or latex gloves when handling the peppers.